The post-80s generation in China is widely and perhaps unfairly characterized as narcissistic, self-centered, and coddled. But this negative description of the 200 million Chinese people born roughly between 1980 and 1990 now include a new word: aging.

“It seems that the post-80s generation has grown old overnight,” said an editorial in the People’s Daily on May 14. They have begun to recall their childhood as the ‘good old days’ and say they are getting old before their parents, the national paper said.

Nostalgic feelings have swept the post-80s generation, as evidenced by the popularity of the online song Li Lei and Han Meimei (Li and Han were the names of two characters in the English text book used by Chinese junior high school students), and the impressive box office of So Young, a film featuring the life of college students in 1990s. It grossed 45 million yuan on the opening-day in the Chinese mainland.

The post-80s generation was born after the introduction of the family planning policy. Growing up in a modern China that buzzes with impressive economic growth and rising living, this generation has access to ample entertainment and creature comforts which their parents never imagined. So why do they always look backward, and what deprives the youth of their vitality?

The newspaper argued that the post-80s generation has had to deal with a spate of growing pains, such as endless homework in their childhood, intense competition in society, the helplessness and pressure born out of urbanization, and spiritual confusion and identity embarrassment, to name just a few.

Sina.com, one of China’s largest web portals, made a penetrating analysis of the aging youth and attributed the problem to social inequity, lack of vacations and anxiety about retirement.

First of all, the generation gets a bitter taste of life the moment they graduate from the colleges. As China expanded college recruitment in the 1990s, more students were pushed into the job market. This year, about seven million college graduates - an increase of 190,000 from last year - will have to find jobs to feed themselves, but vacant jobs have been reduced nationwide due to the slowing down of economic growth.

For privileged students, it is not such a big problem. As seen in recent news reports, children of government officials have pulled strings and installed themselves in government bodies or state-owned enterprises, while their poor and marginalized peers are trapped in low-paid and insecure jobs.

As nine-to-fivers in the office, the generation has fewer days to relax. In 2011, CNN released an online list ranking countries in terms of guaranteed paid vacation days. China, with an alleged 21 days, was the country with fewest days of paid leave, compared to Brazil (41 days) and Russia (40 days).

But many workers in the private sector and labor-intensive industries said they would never take the leave on account of their heavy workload, fierce competition and even fear that they could lose their job.

Worse still, the generation, in their 30s, finds it increasingly hard to feed their family in a time characterized by high inflation and stagnating salaries, as their parents grow old and their children grow up.

An Ran, 26, now works as an executive in a Beijing-based state-owned enterprise. Despite the stable job and social security system, she has bought herself commercial endowment insurance.

“I feel deep pressure now, both economically and spiritually. I have to prepare for my retiring days,” she was quoted as saying. In the past, a job in a state-owned enterprise meant a gold rice bowl (cradle-to-grave security), but today as inflation continues to increase, pensions provided by such enterprises are becoming insufficient, she said. If you just rely on the pensions, “life will be terribly sad.”

In addition, government corruption, skyrocketing house prices and a worsening environment have eroded the generation’s faith in the country.

“If a young person feels old, it is about his or her mentality. But if a large number of youth feel they are aging, it is about the social environment,” said user 散华礼弥丶肆 on his Weibo account.

“We have no idea of what youth is about. We have no hopes, no dreams; only a desire for money and power,” said user 寂寞午后的猫.

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